In World Bank’s report released on Wednesday, India jumped 23 places in global EODB rankings from 100th to 77th position. The report mentioned that India made it faster and less expensive to obtain a construction permit.Mumbai Mirror | November 02, 2018, 17:00 IST

Developers on Thursday credited the Narendra Modi government’s efforts to improve India’s Ease of Doing Business and reduce time and costs of obtaining construction permits, but said it needs to do more.

In World Bank’s report released on Wednesday, India jumped 23 places in global EODB rankings from 100th to 77th position. The report mentioned that India made it faster and less expensive to obtain a construction permit.

"The total time needed for obtaining a permit has been reduced to 95 days, from 144 days. India’s continued effort to make Dealing with Construction Permits easier has this year catapulted the country to a global rank of 52, from 181 last year,” a statement from World Bank said. The report said India still lagged behind in Enforcing Contracts and Registering Property. It took 69 days and higher cost to register a property and 1,1445 days for a company to resolve a commercial dispute compared to 20 days and 582 days of more developed economies.

Reacting to the development, Niranjan Hiranandani, National President, National Real Estate Development Council said the process for obtaining construction clearances have steadily improved over last two years and is expected to improve further.

“We have seen ‘ease of doing business’ translate into quicker turnaround and less number of permissions and clearances. To quantify, if earlier it was 120-odd permissions and clearances required for a real estate project, now it is around 55. This is a huge improvement, but it can be bettered,” Hiranandani said.

“Some aspects like tree cutting, environment clearances, civil aviation height restrictions and high-rise committee tend to still take very long. These would be areas where the powers-that-be can try and speed things up,” he said.

Rohit Poddar, Managing Director, Poddar Housing and Development Ltd, said “The triple tsunami of Demonestisation, GST, RERA takes time to make a substantial different to the economy and Ease of Doing Business and its effects will continue to be positive. Additionally, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scheme (for affordable housing) had made a significant different in real estate approvals across India. Hence it is fully expected that our EODB rankings will continue to become better, and we should target a top 25 ranking in the next five years.”

Ashok Mohanani, chairman of Ekta World, and Vice President, NAREDCO, “This ranking shows positive signs of growth across different parameters - ease of starting a business, construction permits, getting electricity, obtaining credit, paying taxes, trade across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. The major improvement witnessed in 'Construction Permits' and 'Trading across Border’ are a result of various policy changes that’s been brought about by the current government,” he said.

Amit B Wadhwani, Co-founder, Sai Estate Consultants Chembur Pvt Ltd, said “The real estate sector had its fair amount of contribution in attaining this ranking as reforms such as single window clearance in Delhi and online building permit system in Mumbai have been brought about. Going forward, the government is likely to ensure to sustain the momentum and scale growth to fast-track the upswing of the India real estate market. If further improvement in areas like contract enforcements, property registrations, and protection of ownership rights is achieved, we can expect India’s ranking to further rise.”

Anshuman Magazine, Chairman?—?India & South-East Asia, CBRE, said “It is a positive sign for Indian economy. The growth comes on the back of constructive reforms like successful implementation of GST, relaxed and streamlined construction permits, ease in starting a business and trading across borders. The improved ranking will help boost investors’ confidence and will be a step forward in ushering the positive momentum in the coming year.”

Parth Mehta, Managing Director of Paradigm Realty told Mirror, “In past one and half months, the real estate industry was facing a negative sentiment with IL&FS, DHFL, Indiabulls stocks crashing. Home loans were delayed and customers wondered if mortage companies would support home loans. So the improvement in rankings comes as a very big sentiment booster where people.”

He said as far as ease of doing business goes on the ground goes, it still needs better implementation. “But, things are on a positive path. The DC rules will come into place from November 13. The environment norms have been changed from 20000 sq metres to 50,000 metres. The safety and fire norms have become more clearer and well versed. Overall I feel things are headed towards better macro-environment,” he said.

Manju Yagnik, Vice Chairperson, Nahar Group said, "The significant leap in the ranking of ‘construction permit’ from 181 to 52 position can be attributed to the continuous efforts taken by the government to bring in more transparency in the real estate sector through various policy reforms. The market is also seeing slow signs of revival with infrastructure developments, as well as investments being done by actual end-users. Moreover NRI’s are also looking to invest money in the sector, which reflects the enhanced confidence in the buyers.”

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